Commodore Disk Drive Emulator

RASPBERRY Pi1541 HAT with ROTARY and OLED screen

Pi1541 is a real-time, cycle exact, Commodore 1541 disk drive emulator.

You can load and save Commodore programs, D64, .PRG extensions, games/software from a micro SD card as an alternative to the SD2iEC product.

To use Pi1541 you will need a Raspberry PI Zero, Zero 2, Zero 2W, 2B, 3A, 3B or 3B+.

Connect your Raspberry PI device to your new Pi1541 HAT as depicted below:

Pi1541 HAT attached to a Raspberry Pi header adapter with OLED display and rotary encoder

Pi1541 HAT mounted to a Raspberry Pi Zero with OLED display and rotary encoder — Pi Zero, Zero 2,
Zero 2W

Front view of Pi1541 HAT with OLED display mounted to a Raspberry Pi

Pi1541 HAT mounted to a Raspberry Pi 2B or 3-series board — Pi 2B, 3A
3B, 3B+

The software and full instructions for creating a bootable SD card for your PI containing the required emulator and support files can be found on the Pi1541 home page:

https://cbm-pi1541.firebaseapp.com/

The connected device can be plugged into the Commodore computer’s serial port using the 6PIN DIN connection, ensuring the computer is powered off whilst connecting. If you have set up your SD card correctly, the Pi1541 device will display a boot logo followed by a file selector once the PI is powered on via its USB connector.

Programs contained on the SD card can be selected (push) using the ROTARY control and loaded in the same way as loading from Floppy Disks – E.g. load “*”,8,1

Settings for the Rotary

Disable: No jumpers

Enable: J1 and J2 with jumper, see board for desired direction

Pi1541 HAT underside showing J1 and J2 rotary jumper positions

Example Options.txt file

ROM1581 = 1581-rom.318045-02.bin

scrollHighlightRate = 0.07

ChargenFont = charges

OnResetChangeToStartingFolder = 1

GraphIEC = 0

SoundOnGPIO = 0

SoundOnGPIODuration = 1000

SoundOnGPIOFreq = 1200

StarFileName = fb.d64

LCDName = ssd1306_128x64 // Needed to enable LCD screen!

QuickBoot = 1

i2cLcdUseCBMChar = 1

lowercaseBrowseModeFilenames = 1

RotaryEncoderEnable = 1

DisplayTemperature = 1

DisplayTracks = 1

Note: In order to protect your electronical devices, always turn off your Commodore before connecting or disconnecting the cables or any other device.